FOX ON THE BOOZE
Daily Mail...By Harcharan Chananoke
How 22 cars had their brake fluid drained by thirsty urban wildlife
WHEN 22 cars parked in neighbouring streets had their brake cables cut, it looked like the police had a particularly persistent vandal on their hands.
Officers set up a surveillance unit in the garden of one victim and spent a night in a van that had been targeted four times. But there was no sign of a vandal - at least, not ot the human kind. Instead, the operation in Epsom, Surrey, put a new suspectin the trame:The urban fox.
With scores milling around the parked vehicles, it became clear that the animals were behind the spate of attacks, after apparently becoming addicted to the sweet taste of brake fluid.
Urban fox expert John Bryant said the stress of competing in such high numbers had probably driven the young animals to chew the brake cables in the first place.
'It is very rare,' he said. 'I have seen one or two cases before but never 22 in one area. The foxes are homeless, so take shelter under cars, and will chew through anything they come across.'
The AA suggested the foxes were hooked on glycol, the sweet-tasting chemical used as brake fluid.
John Stubbs, the AA's head of technical policy, said:
'We've had sporadic cases of rats damaging brake cables to get at the fluid. 'I've not known of foxes doing this, but I know it's common in Germany for visitors to the Black Forest to return to their cars and find the brake cables chewed by pine martens. They're weasel-like animals, not dissimilar to foxes.'
Glycol is a viscous alcohol used as brake fluid because it does not compress - which means it transmits hydraulic pressure very efficiently. But it is highly toxic and it is not known how foxes would react to drinking it.
Mr Stubbs added: 'A cupful of glycol would be fatal to a human and the toxic level would usually be less for smaller creatures. 'But maybe foxes are resistant, like rats, which can eat all manner of stuff humans wouldn't dream of touching.'
Mr Bryant said the theory that one or more foxes was drinking the brake fluid was plausible. 'Parents kick out their cubs at six to seven months and make them go off and find their own territory,' he explained. 'In towns, this is usually an area covering about ten gardens. 'This is very difficult to find, and they're all in competition. I can imagine one running under a car and lashing out.
They may then like the taste of brake fluid.' .
One of the victims, Maggie Hay wood, told of her terror as she drove off in her Mitsubishi Charisma without realising the brakes were not functioning.
'At first they just felt a bit odd but within five minutes they weren't working at all she said. 'I was in rush-hour traffic and had to use the handbrake to stop while I crawled along until I reached the nearest garage. I was petrified.'
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